Listeria Monocytogenes Research Paper

Abstract

Meat borne diseases associated with consumption of ready-to-eat meat contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes represents a considerable public health concern. The ability to persist in food-processing environments and multiply under refrigeration temperatures makes L. monocytogenes a serious threat to public health. L. monocytogenes contamination is one of the leading microbiological causes of food recalls. Ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked meat and meat products are frequently contaminated with L. monocytogenes during post-processing operations and handling as the processing facilities are frequently contaminated with non-persistent/ persistent L. monocytogenes. In addition to physical and biological interventions, chemical antimicrobial

Control of L. monocytogenes:

Keeping the above mentioned concerns regarding food safety and public health as well as economic loss to meat industry, control of L. Monocytogenes is very critical. This can be done by various measures such as physical (heat treatment, pressure, irradiation), biological interventions and chemical antimicrobial agents (benzoate, lactate, di-acetate, sorbate, acetic acid, lactic acid etc).

Irradiation:

Oh et al. (2014) investigated the inhibitory effect of chlorine (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) with and without UV radiation (300 mWs/cm2) for the growth of L. monocytogenes in chicken breast meat. The results showed that the combination of chlorine at 100 mg/kg and UV at 300 mWs/cm2 appears to an effective method into inhibit L. monocytogenes growth (0.4 log cfu/g) in broiler carcasses. Foong et al. (2004) reported that the doses of e-beam irradiation needed for a 3-log reduction of L. monocytogenes were 1.5 kGy for bologna, roast beef, and turkey with and without lactate, and 2.0 kGy for frankfurters and ham. Irradiation of ground pork at 2.5 kGy reduced L. monocytogenes without starvation by approximately 6.0 log, whereas starved cells were reduced by only 3.8 log. Zhu et al. (2009) studied the effects of antimicrobial ingredients

monocytogenes and the effect of LP system –whey protein isolate (WPI) films and/or coating on smoked salmon. The WPI coatings incorporating LP system prevented the growth of L. monocytogenes in smoked salmon at 4 and 10°C for 35 and 14 day, respectively. According to Samelis et al. (2005), pork bologna slices dipped in a nisin solution (5,000 IU/mL) suppressed L. monocytogenes by 1 to 1.5 log cfu/cm2 at day 0, but L. monocytogenes populations increased by 10 day after dipping. Grower et al. (2004) developed a nisin-containing solution for coating the surface of LDPE films in order to release nisin to inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes. Franklin et al. (2004) reported that the packaging films coated with a cellulose-based solution containing 10000 and 7500 IU/mL nisin significantly decreased (P < 0.05) L. monocytogenes populations on the surface of hot dogs by >2 log cfu per package throughout the 60 days study. L. monocytogenes inactivation in frankfurters by Hydrodynamic pressure processing was influenced by salt